Teardown of Retina MacBook Pro Finds Low Repairability with Custom Components

[fleshman03]

Ahem.

Back in the 1990s Apple used to use proprietary components, internal connections and ports, which was one of the causes of Apple's march toward becoming an endangered species. Macs were expensive, and difficult to repair with expensive SCSI disks, weird Nubus and Comm Slot sockets (ATA and PCI later on, granted) and strange power supply connections.

When Steve came back, the propitiatory connections began to disappear, until you could use standard ATA disks, any standard CD drive, USB, etc. The earlier Intel Macs had the most numerous standard components, but it seems we're heading back the other way again in the strive to shave 0.0001" off each corner. Is it really worth having a computer that's a few percent thinner, that'll cost you hundreds to repair when the SSD wears out? Or if the RAM fails the whole logic board needs replacing? Don't tell me a proprietary SSD slot is necessary, the standard one worked just fine in the Air. Why is the battery glued into the base of the MBP? Surely double sided tape works just as well as it has done in the iPhone and iPad for the last few years. Is a hard disk with custom firmware in the iMac really required? Why do the fans go 747 when you put your own hard disk in?

I don't like the direction Apple is heading with the lack of standard components. History's shown the more proprietary they become, the more of an outsider they become, too.

This. I have been reading Walter Isaacson book and it is shocking to me how much Steve moved away from some of the crap Amelio and Sculley did. It's almost as if they never learned those lessons. (Or maybe Steve was the only one who did?)

 

[foodog]

Not true, we are running just 6 gigs of ram in our Mac pros for our prepress dept in a large printing company. More then enough. If people actually ran istat and saw how much ram they are actually using many would realize there is no need for more then 8 gigs of ram unless running multiple VM's or heavy video editing.

emphasis on the word heavy.....

 

[smithrh]

If only...

If only Apple had some previous experience with making intricate electronics... then I'd feel better.

If only Apple had some knowledge of how non-user serviceable batteries fare... then I'd feel better.

If only Apple had a better track record with laptops... then I'd feel better.

If only Apple sold metric craptons of non-user expandable gear... then I'd feel better.

If only Apple would have thought through all of the implications of this design... then I'd feel better.

But seriously - much of this talk sounds VERY similar to the talk going around when the iPod first came out.

Yes, I'm a bit disappointed in soldered RAM - but that's pretty much it.

 

[rdlink]

Please define "future proof"

I've bought computers were it was an option to upgrade the harddisk to a whopping and future proof 40 Mb!!!!

Here's your definition: Put Parallels on a MBP with 16GB of RAM. You can dedicated 2 cores and 4GB of memory to Windows, and still have 2 cores and 12GB of RAM for OSX. Or, you can give a core and 4GB of RAM to both Windows and Linux, and still have 2 cores and 8GB of RAM for OSX.

All of this is in a laptop that's .71 of an inch thick, and weighs less than 4.5 lbs.

MOST users will physically wear out a machine like that long before it becomes obsolete for them.

In the day of the 40MB HD, the curve of advancement was extremely steep. It's much flatter today, and 95% of users never even make their computer breathe hard.

 

[JHankwitz]

Can't upgrade the RAM yourself now.

Why would you need to upgrade RAM? Get the RAM you need when you make the purchase. It's well worth the added cost.

 

[zoetmb]

Being members to a tech blog like we all are, I think we forget there are a lot of people who have no desire to open up their machine to tinker with it, and will be more than satisfied with what comes in the box.

That's true, but in the past, Apple made battery changes extraordinarily easy and memory/HDD upgrades relatively easy for anyone with even a modicum of technical comfort.

IMO, we're giving up too much in the interests of thinness. I'd rather have a slightly thicker and heavier machine if it gave me access to all these things. I have a 3-4 year old MBP 15" and I recently had to replace the battery, which in that machine was easier than replacing a light bulb. I also decided to replace the HDD and I was able to get a really nice 768MB HDD which also had a SSD cache for about $200. The only thing that made that even slightly complicated was the need to first put the new drive in an enclosure so I could backup onto it and then install it and move the old drive to the case. But it all went flawlessly.

All that would be impossible on the new machine. I have to say, that does disturb me, especially, in essence, forcing us to buy Apple Care. The more I pay for a machine, the longer I want it to last. This lack of upgradability means these machines will have lesser useful lives.

 

[Alchemis]

This is simply inexcusable. Batteries are arguably the most likely point of failure in mobile devices.

Gluing it in isn't the end of the world. As You can find on Apple's own website here: http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/service/battery/

The batteries for the Retina are replaceable, but damn are they expensive. $229 if an Aussie had to do one. Yikes!!

I'm considering the base model Retina MBP but only because I get the $220 education discount in Australia as a staff member of a school. I don't need much storage any more, most of my stuff sits on my desktop and if I want it I put in on a portable hard drive. Also hinges on me selling the current MBP at the right price.

 

[Celf]

That's why you should always buy AppleCare.

In the Netherlands Apple care for the Retina MBP's is 400 USD!! This is getting really silly.

 

[fat jez]

I wonder why they put two thunderbolt ports on it, allowing unprecedented expansion to a laptop computer. Them being greedy consumer-screwers & all

Probably because in the corporate environment one of those will be taken up with a thunderbolt to ethernet adaptor, leaving only one connection for monitors, etc. Many companies do not yet trust wifi for their corporate networks.

 

[vpro]

Hmmm battery..

Battery = energy and abuse of the consumer! Can look at it both ways.

I have never owned one of these before - so what really does happen when this built in - glued in batter fails? They just replace it if you have the premium insurance 'apple care' and if you don't, what do you pay? (With your life savings?) Hope not!

Everything is great with all this technological advancements and revolutionary new ideas and all in these products but at the end of the day, when that battery fails and when there is an even more major WORLD WIDE energy crisis/shortage, all of it is just 'dust and metal fragments in the void'... It is romantic still and I LOVE IT all!


Ahhhh LIFE, refreshing like this morning's crisp bite to the air -- mountains, mmmmmmm and freezing cold lakes. What more is there really to life than nature. So be it.

 

[Quu]

I'm okay with this but when I get mine I'll definitely need to get that 16GB RAM BTO. Even though I don't need it today I don't know what I'll need in three years from now (which is roughly how long I keep a notebook).

I'll probably get the low end one with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD then I can upgrade the SSD myself later when companies come out with compatible ones.

 

[foodog]

This. I have been reading Walter Isaacson book and it is shocking to me how much Steve moved away from some of the crap Amelio and Sculley did. It's almost as if they never learned those lessons. (Or maybe Steve was the only one who did?)

Nonsense. Steve Jobs brought about more self-unrepairable, user-unreplaceable items than not. As time went on Apple has shrunk devices at the expence of easily replacing batteries (think iPod, iPhone, iPad), hard drives (think iMac especially the 2009 one), RAM and hard drive (think Mac mini dual putty knife)

 

[jclardy]

So I wonder how Apple repairs it if you have battery issues in your Applecare period if it is glued down.

Maybe they have a built a specific MBP battery removal tool

 

[winston1236]

wow you can't even upgrade the ram?? thats a deal breaker for me

 

[foodog]

In the Netherlands Apple care for the Retina MBP's is 400 USD!! This is getting really silly.

400 is a pretty good insurance policy for a several thousand dollar piece of electronics, that is all Applecare is.

 

[lord patton]

That's a silly example. What if you lived in a world where one day, for sure, inevitably, a brick would fall on your head? Would you consider wearing a helmet then?

Batteries die. It's what they do. One day the battery will be worn out and need replacing. That's a guaranteed fact.

Well, if we're sticking with a silly analogy, I think it'd be better to say:

What if you lived in a town where you were guaranteed a brick would someday fall on your head, but there was only a .1% chance that this would occur during the first 3-4 years of your living there, after which time you'd most likely have moved to another town.

If those were the odds, no helmet.

I'm glad to hear that Apple's replacement battery includes the replacement itself, but I wonder how they plan to do it if the batteries are glued on so tightly that even iFixit is afraid to touch it.

That's Apple's problem. Maybe they know something iFixit doesn't, like the perfect chemical solution for removing the adhesive.

 

[paradox00]

Deleted, battery replacement costs already listed in this thread.

 

[SSDGUY]

Perspective

$200 for an additional 8gb of advanced propriety RAM? I wouldn't think twice. Haven't bitched about Mac prices since buying a Quadra 700 beige box in 1993 for $3,500. Soon after I upgraded the RAM from 4megabytes to 20megabytes for $500. (The term "gigabyte" was crazy talk back then.) This was necessary so that I could rotate a greyscale image in Aldus Freehand without needing to go out for coffee. At the same time I bought a 17" NEC CRT for $1,500. Years later it was replaced with a 23" ACD for $1,500, and years later, a barely used 30" ACD for $1,200, which I'm happily viewing now. Every year we get more for less, folks. (And long-gone are the all-nighters of infinite restarts with Conflict Catcher!) Enjoy your Macs and enjoy your work!

 

[foodog]

Why would you need to upgrade RAM? Get the RAM you need when you make the purchase. It's well worth the added cost.

In the past Apple RAM has been out of sight expensive.... Not sure if its the same here.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

I haven't bitched about Mac prices since buying a Quadra 700 beige box in 1993 for $3K. Soon after I upgraded the ram from 4megabytes to 20megabytes for $500. (The term "gigabyte" was crazy talk back then.) This was necessary so that I could rotate a greyscale image in Aldus Freehand without needing to go out for coffee. Also bought a 17" NEC CRT for $1500. Years later it was replaced with a 23" ACD for $1500, and years later, a barely used 30" ACD for $1200, which I'm looking at now. Every year we get more for less, folks. (And long gone are the days of repeated restarts with Conflict Catcher!) Enjoy your Macs and enjoy your work!

Oh man, conflict catcher. Those were the days - booting up with custom extensions one by one... ouch.

 

[Bendrix]

This.

While I understand that there are still some geeks out there who want to tinker, the vast majority of people just want good, easy, solid computers that run and help them do what they need/want to do. Think of it like an appliance in your life. Do you bitch because you can't easily replace the compressor or coils in your fridge? Do you want to replace the compressor or coils in your fridge?

Refrigeration is a relatively static technology. It changes pretty slowly. Also, refrigerators are stable machines. Computers are pretty fragile and require maintenance and updating.

 

[runonthespot]

Proprietary seems an inevitable step and it's obviously been a lesson learnt from iPad, where if you think about it, almost everything is proprietary.

My only concern with this new laptop is that SSD drives fail. Some say a lot. I guess this makes Apple Care a requirement. My question is, though, without Apple care, if after 1 year and 1 day, your hard disk fails, what would happen? Presumably you'd still need Apple to fix it. While it's somewhat reasonable to say, require someone to pay up to fix something that breaks, it's clearly not reasonable to have to throw the whole laptop away for this or some other minor, otherwise repairable failure. Now I'm fairly sure that failure to provide a means to fix it would open up Apple to class-actions etc, and certainly the extremely friendly replacement policy for non-Applecare ipad holders, out of warranty that I've experienced will mitigate it.

I think as long as Apple continue to realise that their quest for perfection in size and features means they need to continue to be graceful when people experience issues, I think everything will be ok.

Sigh. It is a bad day to already own a (relatively) new Macbook Pro 15

 

[bhtooefr]

Really, this is annoying, but I think most people saw it coming after the keynote. Well, everything but the glued in battery, anyway.

The thing that sucks about the "buy the non-retina MBP" or "buy a Windows machine" argument is, well, you can't get the retina screen without, and the only reason you can't is because all of the 220 ppi 15.4" screens are being made for Apple, for MBPRs. Which pushes you all the way back to 2007 if you want anything that's even in the same league on display density and pixel area - a 7 year old IDTech LCD in a 6 year old ThinkPad chassis with a 5 year old motherboard. And to do the build with new or refurbished components costs more than some of the lower-end Airs, and requires filing metal away from the chassis to get the board to fit.

I'm guessing that Apple has a fixture that can slide under the battery to break the glue without damaging any components.

 

[ixodes]

For laptops - applecare was always justifiable.

Most certainly.

I've purchased AppleCare for every new PowerBook or MBP / MBA I own.

I'm not one to buy extended warranties, but this is the one exception that makes complete sense.

I wouldn't touch any other warranty option except AppleCare. They have a vested interest, are properly trained, and only use proper OEM Apple parts. Well worth the money, this is no place to skimp.

The few times I've used it, the service & repair times have been exemplary.

I highly endorse AppleCare.

 

[poldidak]

You say re-TEE-na, I say re-TY-na...

Anyone else think "Retina MacBook Pro" is going to start being too much of a mouthful?

How about "Retina Book"? We already call the iPod Touch the "iTouch".

I'm just happy that thanks to Apple products everyone will now be able to pronounce the word "retina" when they read it! Not /re-TEE-na/ or /RET-n-AY/ (which is what I used for acne when I was a kid).

Now, if only Regina, Saskatchewan would fix the pronunciation of their fair city, all our problems would be solved. Or perhaps people there will just say "i want my MacBook Re-TY-na"!!